Emerging Writers Series: Seth Robinson
“My ideas generally come from trying to expose myself to lots of different stories and experiences. I love absorbing all different kinds of media and connecting with the world, and I think the advantage of that is that a good story will often hit you when you least expect it.”
Building on our mission to bring readers and writers together, the next instalment of our Emerging Writers interview series is with the delightful Seth Robinson.
Seth hit our reading radars hard in the past year with the publication of his debut novel Welcome to Bellevue, a short story in the inaugural Ultimo Press Prize Anthology Everything, All At Once, and more short stories on the way!
We caught up on what it’s like to work with a university press, the challenge and joy of writing short stories, and the importance of building a writing community over a writing platform.
Tell us a bit about how your writing journey began?
I liked writing and the idea of being a writer long before I decided it was something I wanted to pursue as a career. When I was in primary school and later during high school, without realising it, English and creative writing were my favourite subjects and the ones I always did the best in.
I’ve always absolutely loved stories and storytelling. I use ‘storytelling’ broadly because stories sit across mediums. I’m a huge movie buff; I love to read, I love audiobooks and podcasts - I think all of that has always been a part of my thinking and interests. I didn’t start to pursue writing until I got towards the end of my undergrad arts degree at Australian National University (ANU), where I studied English, International Relations and Anthropology - that classic Arts student degree, like here are the things I’m interested in, but where’s this leading me for a career?!
I published a short story in the ANU press and started on my first manuscript for a novel, which I finished in 2014. That one’s still unpublished, and it’s one of my next big projects I’d love to go back to now, with this distance and growth as a writer, and rejig it. I think it’s a great story, but it needs a lot of work!
After my undergrad, I thought maybe now was the time to do an MFA, and I started looking into programs in the States. I’m originally from there and moved to Australia when I was four. I got into a school in California but then decided actually, I do not want to spend my entire life in debt! Around the same time, I met my now wife, and things were going well, so I decided to stay. We moved to Melbourne, where I came and did a creative writing program at the University of Melbourne, which was very cool, and how I came to connect with Grattan Street Press, who published my debut novel. Things have kind of grown organically from there.
Welcome to Bellevue (2020) was your debut novel, and you’ve mentioned you have one other manuscript. Was Bellevue the first manuscript you pitched for publication?
Welcome to Bellevue was the third manuscript that I’ve written. It was really exciting to work with Grattan Street Press on that and approach publication in a slightly different way - through a university, student-led press. It was nice to see that come to fruition in the way it did.
I did have a second manuscript repped by an agent before that in the US for a while, but that didn’t end up going anywhere, and I’ve since moved on to other projects. I often look at that now as kind of a trial run and a good learning experience.
Now I’m working on my doctorate and writing a novel as part of that. I’m actually glad I’ve had that structure throughout the pandemic, as it’s helped keep me motivated, and it’s been good having a project I can work on slowly. I’ve also written a bunch of short fiction, more than I have in previous years. I never saw short stories as my strong suit, but now I’ve got a few pieces coming out - like in the Ultimo Prize anthology, Everything, All at Once - it’s been cool to shift my writing perspective in that way.
Let’s chat about the process of working with Grattan Street Press. My understanding is that it’s all run by current students at the University of Melbourne - so perhaps a little different from more traditional book publishing. What was that experience like?
Grattan Street Press has such an interesting and unique set-up - I’m not aware of any other models that run exactly like it. They have academic supervisors, who are the constant presence of the press - Sybil Nolan and Katherine Day run it and they’re both industry professionals turned academics. Each semester they have a new cohort of students who come in and are assigned a different role, ranging from marketing and social media, to selections and editorial work, alongside structural editors and copy editors. It’s grown significantly in recent years.
I think Welcome to Bellevue was the first long-form fiction novel they published, which was really exciting for me. It’s super interesting working in that way because a semester is not that long when you think about it, and so the students change over and you’re constantly meeting new people. I did an event with them recently where they asked if that was an issue for me, but I really saw it as a bonus.
With new students coming in, they bring fresh ideas and perspectives, so you have people who are excited to be there and be involved. They’re so passionate and they do great work, and the academics overseeing them are fantastic custodians of the whole process. As a writer, it means you get to be involved in parts of publishing you might not otherwise. I feel like I’ve gotten really good at guerilla marketing as a result!
Something I’ve chatted about with a few authors is this idea of creative input they continue to have with their work once it’s handed over to a publisher. Were you quite heavily involved with the overall outcome or was it more a case of handing it over and waiting to see?
That’s a great question. There were elements that I was not super involved with that I would have liked to be involved with more, and I think that just came down to timelines. But then, when it came to the editorial process and how the book was promoted and publicised, I got to be very involved. I enjoyed that, and even now, they ask me to come back to participate in events. I have a story in their upcoming anthology, too, so it’s nice to stay connected to that community.
I think the creative control thing is an important topic. I was in a creative writing class a few years ago, and the tutor made a comment along the lines of “oh, I know this is a room of writers, so you’re all misanthropes, and you don’t like people,” and I kind of took a bit of umbrage with that. It’s a bit of a misinformed stereotype of the writer who doesn’t like to hang out with people or talk to anyone. There’s a lot to be said for being connected with the world around you.
In the afterword for Bellevue, I wrote ‘it takes a village to raise a book,’ and I stand by that. I’m a huge believer in the collaborative side of things.
I can come up with a story idea and put it down on paper, but nine times out of ten, an editor’s input will make it a lot better. The same thing can be said for the publishers, designers, marketers, sellers, everyone involved in the process. With these collaborative things that become books, you have to give credit to the community that makes it happen.
On the note of story ideas, Welcome to Bellevue and your story “Watch Me” in the Ultimo anthology, Everything, All at Once, are quite different and unique - Bellevue, in particular, takes us on a fabulous journey! Can you tell us a bit more about where you draw your inspiration from?
I think my ideas generally come from trying to expose myself to lots of different stories and experiences. I mentioned before that I love absorbing all kinds of media and connecting with the world, and I think the advantage is that a good story will often hit you when you least expect it.
For example, I have a story out for submission now. It’s called Buenos Aires. My wife and I travelled to Buenos Aires in 2019, our last pre-COVID hurrah, and I got this metal street sign as a souvenir. I was sitting at my desk one day staring at it, and this entire story just kind of hit me all at once. It was cool! But I do think it was down to having stacked up a few experiences, travelling to South America, all the COVID stuff that’s going on, and a few other inspirations that all came together nicely in that moment.
Welcome to Bellevue came out of a serial storytelling workshop I was doing, and I pulled all these pieces together. When you read it, it’s very clear that it’s episodic, so that was the main influence there. I love Stephen King’s stories, he’s one of my guilty pleasures, and I definitely think that influence is in there, along with a little Neil Gaiman. I’ve heard some people liken it to David Lynch’s work, which I’ve found interesting because I wouldn’t have said that was a conscious influence, but it just shows you that readers also bring all their own influences and opinions to your work and can introduce you to new sources of inspiration. Again, the ultimate reading of the book ends up being a collaborative experience.
And can you tell us a bit more about your story, “Watch Me,” in the Ultimo Press anthology?
Yeah, so I think this is the first time Ultimo Press has put together an anthology; it’s a collection of stories and poems from emerging Australian writers under thirty. I have just turned thirty, so I might be the oldest in there - I just made the cut-off!
Honestly, I saw the call out come along, and the theme was “identity,” and I didn’t have anything that immediately came to mind, but when I see short story open calls pop up, I keep a list and try and see if I have an idea in time. I can’t remember the exact moment when this story came along, but there’s one scene in there - the scene with the Italian boy on the train - and that was the first of the little vignettes that came to form this story. That scene is my favourite and always felt like the story’s heart, if you will. From there, I started piecing all these little vignettes together. It was a real chance to play with writing in that style, try something new and experiment. That’s something I’ve tried hard to do during this whole COVID period, to push myself to write in different styles and trial different kinds of short fiction.
Our whole life has been virtual for the last two years; even before then, our relationship with social media has been seen as something problematic, right? We were already talking about it when I studied anthropology, going back almost ten years, so I think all of that permeated and came together in this idea of the performative self and what happens when that takes over and we stop caring about the real world.
Staying with the social media theme, there’s often a lot of push for writers to have a social media presence, and I’m keen to hear your thoughts about writers and social media?
Another really interesting question! It’s one I’m trying to figure out myself - it’s 100% the only reason I still have Instagram and Twitter. I deleted my Facebook the other day, and I have these platforms because I’ve been led to believe, and probably do believe, that they’re necessary to promote your work as a writer.
That said, I do think it’s more important to have a community over a platform - and I think that’s an important distinction to make.
Having a community implies connection, reciprocity, being part of a greater sphere, whereas having a ‘platform’ feels a bit more like you’re just shouting into the void. Virtual communities are great, and they’re really big right now. I live in Melbourne, but I feel connected to the Sydney literary scene, as I’m studying through Sydney Uni and connecting with others through places like Aniko Press and a few others virtually.
I also suck at social media, so I’m no expert in the space by any means!
I love that distinction between building a community over a platform - can you recommend a few ways to create that community as a writer?
I’ve been fortunate that my jumping off point into many of these communities has been through studying and university. I realise that’s quite a privileged background to come from, and not all writers have access to that and the chance to go and do creative writing degrees.
That’s where my communities have mostly come from, but I do think there are other pathways to that. Once you start connecting with particular journals and publishers, you can build from there for example. Grattan Street Press has been a big one for me - but it is hard, it’s really hard, to get that first step in the door and begin building those communities.
I’ve recently made a friend who I’ve enjoyed getting to know and we just met through the dog park! We both have cavoodles and he’s a writer as well, so we bonded over dogs and writing, and he’s been a good lockdown friend. We live in an age where it is hard to put yourself out there but I think being open and being friendly goes a long way.
I read a quote from Bri Lee, which I think might actually have been advice someone gave her, but it was along the lines of: “there are three things [a writer should try to be] and you have to always be two of them. You can either file on time, you can be really fucking talented or you can be a pleasure to work with. You always have to be at least two of those things”.
I think ticking the boxes of keeping to deadlines and being a pleasure to work with are ones you can do without too much effort! Especially while you’re honing your craft and figuring out just how talented you are.
You’ve touched on moving from writing a novel to short stories; that must have been quite a change in pace? Do you find more satisfaction in writing one form over the other?
It’s interesting, I think at least for me, I haven’t tried to write a very experimental full-length novel yet. I’ve had some ideas, and it’s something I would love to explore in the future. But I’ve also found that some of those ideas have leant themselves well to the short story form.
I’m getting to the point now where I have a number of short stories, and I’m thinking perhaps this could be a cool, experimental collection I could put together. But you’re right; it’s a very different thing and a very different approach. It’s not something I’d thought about much before, say a few years ago, but I’ve spoken to a few people since COVID kicked off about what they’re reading and writing, and several have said that they don’t feel like they have the stamina for longer fiction now. I do get that. I’ve been really happy to be doing the doctorate because it’s kept pushing me on my novel, and it’s been nice having that project being quite prominent. In terms of other creative things, like the short stories, it definitely feels like - at the moment - they’re something I’m more mentally and emotionally capable of - you know? Writing something longer right now feels quite daunting.
I was so happy when “Watch Me” landed in the anthology; it made my year. It was one I was really excited about. Some stories you write, and you think to yourself, “yeah, I like this one!” - and they’re absolutely not all like that! Having the chance to explore short story writing has been cool, and I feel like my stories are progressively getting better.
I have to remind myself sometimes that writing is something I enjoy and not get sucked into the frustrations surrounding being ‘a writer’ and being published. You have to remind yourself that it’s about doing something that makes you happy. And it’s been nice to explore short stories for that reason.
As you may know, we have a strong readership of budding authors. Do you have any advice you’d share with others just getting started on their own writing journeys?
I think there are two things here. As writers, we’re often sold a very traditional pathway to success and publication. I think that’s all well and good, if it happens for you that way, that’s fantastic, but one of the most damaging things about that idea is that if it doesn’t happen in that ‘exact’ way - it becomes very dejecting. For me, it took connecting with Grattan Street Press to realise there are other ways to publication.
I think it’s essential to remember that just because your practice or your writing doesn’t look the way you might have been told it should, it doesn’t mean that’s a bad thing.
And the spin-off from that is you should look for publications and pathways that are maybe not what would be called the ‘traditional route’. A subset of literary journals have become part of that traditional framework, as in ‘Oh, I have to be published in this journal to make it’, and I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think there are some newer publications, like Aniko Press, for example, doing some fantastic things and publishing really exciting work, and as part of that, they’re building a strong sense of community among the next wave of writers.
So yeah, enjoy what you’re doing, stay connected with the world, be creative for yourself and seek new ways of getting your work out there and finding an audience who enjoy your work.
Final question - you’ve mentioned you’re working on your next novel as part of your doctorate - can you share a little with us on what you’re working on?
It’s tied to my doctoral work, which is thinking about whether a writer’s practice is art for art’s sake, or is it - should it - be about tackling these significant issues we see in the world. For me, that’s climate change, the pandemic and this crisis of leadership we see around us right now. As part of that, I’m exploring how integral structural forms are, things like the Hero’s Journey, and how they might be used, or challenged, as part of creative practice.
The book’s called Grace, and it follows a couple of protagonists who live in a world that’s been affected by all these things. I guess it’s my way of battling with these questions, alongside playing with things like form and time.
I hope to see it out in the world soon!
Seth Robinson is the author of Welcome to Bellevue, published by Grattan Street Press (GSP) in 2020. Welcome to Bellevue is the first full-length novel in GSPs original fiction collection. In 2021, Seth was selected as one of the inaugural winners of the Ultimo Prize (fiction). His other creative works have featured in Aurealis Magazine, TCK Town, the GSP Flash Fiction Anthology, the University of Sydney Anthology, Farrago and Woroni. Seth received a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing from the University of Melbourne in 2018 and a Bachelor of Arts from the Australian National University (ANU) in 2014. Born in Seattle, Washington, his family emigrated to Australia when he was four years old. Seth draws on his experiences of being a dual-citizen in his written work, in his thinking about people, place, politics, and the wider world. Seth is currently working on his next novel and on completing his Doctor of Arts (Creative Writing) through the University of Sydney. When not writing, Seth’s time is dictated by the household alpha dog, his Cavoodle, Swayze.
IG: @sethrobinsonink
Web: https://sethrobinson.ink
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in nipaluna (Hobart), Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
